Mercian Cycles

Christopher Barbour,
Veteran-Cycle Club

Mercian
Cycles have published an historical
essay on the company web
site. A few notes on published sources and frame models will lend
important background to Mercian history and point to lines of further
enquiry.

Of foremost interest to owners of older Mercians wishing to identify
their machines is the fact that records for frames built before 1970 no
longer exist; they are assumed to have been lost or discarded when
Mercian moved shop in 1971. The Mercian
Cycles Register, compiled and
published by Chris Barbour and Martin Hanczyc of the Veteran-Cycle
Club, is an attempt to reconstruct the lost record of earlier Mercian
frames.

All sources agree that Mercian Cycles was founded in 1946 by Tom
Crowther and Lou Barker, and that frame production started soon
thereafter. Mick Madgett of the V-CC has records of Mercian frames
sales at Madgett Cycles, Diss, Norfolk, that show frame no. M1146 was
sold on 17 April 1947 - the oldest documented Mercian, its whereabouts
unknown. Another Mercian, no. 444, survives and is reputed to have been
made in 1946.

Identification of models without original documentation or first-hand
knowledge of original specification can be tricky. Mercian has used
many lug patterns and model names over the years, which sometimes
correspond, but at other times do not. Reliably identified models in
the register show that the same pattern could be used for different
models; on the other hand, some individual models were available with
different lugs, or even lugless, at the same time [see Hilary Stone,
“Design Classic: Mercian Tourers”, Cycling Plus,
June
2004]. The pattern of frame numbers has varied over the
years,
and especially on 1950s frames, the year of manufacture could be either
the last two digits or the first two. There are a sufficient number of
frames in the Register to show trends, but some frames - number 59557
for
example, which may have been made in either 1957 or 1959 - will be
impossible to date precisely without corroborating information.
Further
information on
Mercian in
the period 1956-60.

Some early frames carry “Tom Crowther” transfers,
and to
confuse matters, there are frames of that marque that would seem to
date from periods after Crowther sold the business to Mercian builder
William Betton in 1965. Grant Mosley, a longtime employee who purchased
the business with current director Jane Smith upon Betton’s
retirement in 2003, confirms that these later Crowther frames were made
under contract in the Mercian shops [see Nic Henderson,
http://www.bikebrothers.co.uk/tomcrowther.htm].

The most important primary documents before 1970 are Mercian frame
brochures. Several have been published on the Mercian history page. It
is unfortunate that photographs in the 1950s brochures do not show
sufficient detail to discern lug patterns.

In 2006 a brochure surfaced with a separate, enclosed printed price
list dated November 1st, 1951. Featured therein are the
Vigorelli
Pursuit, Miss Mercian, and Massed Start frames, all constructed with
Oscar Egg lugs, a common brand
of fitting on early Mercians. Models
listed without photos include the Standard Track frame (Oscar Egg
lugs), the lugless
Whitemeadows Road Racing frame, and the lugless
Short Distance Road-Track frame. The separate price card adds the King
of Mercia and, in a handwritten addition, “Vigorelli Scroll
Lugs” (left?)
at
a pound dearer than the Vigorelli Pursuit. In light of
Hilary Stone’s Cycling Plus article, wherein he describes the
early 1950s Super Vigorelli with lugs of “a similar design to
the
Vincitore’s”, it would seem that the scroll-lug
model is
likely to be the first appearance of the Mercian’s signature
motif in hand-cut lugs, seen since the mid-1960s in the Vincitore
racing and touring models.

In addition to Oscar Egg lugs, the 1951 brochure mentions use of Agrati
ends and brazed-on fittings for Simplex or Benelux gears.

It will be for others to relate the history of racing men and women on
Mercian cycles. It should be noted that throughout the excellent
Bicycling book: transportation, recreation, sport (John and Vera van
der Reis Krausz. – NY: Dial Press, 1982) one sees a number of
Mercians photographed on tour and in rough stuff, cyclocross, and hill
climbs. On November 11, 1954, when Cycling featured Ray Booty
as
its Man of the Year, he was shown at speed on a Mercian bike.

Models of long standing in the frame brochures include:

Vigorelli
- almost always a fixed-wheel track or time trial frame,
although Dave Keeler’s 1954 Mercians appear to be geared
Vigorellis; still available in 2006, but since the 1960s, not with
fancy lugs.

King
of Mercia
– usually the top-of-the-line among Mercian frames made with
commercially available lugs.

Superlight
– introduced in the late 1950s, it used
Mercian’s own hand-cut lugs and shot-in stays; in 2005 it
disappeared from the online catalog.

Campionissimo/Olympic/Classic/Audax
... slightly less expensive frames
than the King of Mercia, sometimes with simpler lugs, often available
only in a fixed frame specification; introduced by the late 1950s.

Vincitore
– according to Hilary Stone’s research, this
frame with fancy lugs in the motif of the 1950s Vigorelli, but with
some differences in the lug profiles, was revived under Bill
Betton’s ownership circa 1965; Mercian’s signature
lug
pattern.

Hilary Stone’s article in Cycling Plus and
Mercian’s own
potted history are the best overviews. Many Americans will be familiar
with the chapter on Mercian in The Custom Bicycle, by Michael Kolin and
Denise De la Rosa (Emmaus, PA, 1979), which provides a glimpse of the
firm under Bill Betton’s direction in a time of booming
production. The author would be grateful to hear from readers of this
page who have other articles or documentation on Mercian Cycles, such
as reviews of Mercian bicycles in British cycling magazines.

Peter
Underwood
attaches some details of a
couple of
interesting older machines. The first is a
1954 machine,
frame
No. 36254 (54 at the end denotes year on this frame) which
was built for Dave
Keeler of the Vegetarian C
& AC.
Dave was a leading time-triallist in the UK and also competed
in track and road racing events spanning all disciplines from 4000
Metres
Pursuit on the track to attacking and getting the Land's End to John O'
Groats (850 miles) record in 1958.

Always interested in cycle technology, Dave had been impressed with the
Paris/Roubaix gear thinking that it
would be ideal for a time-triallist who would not need to change gear
so often and had purchased one when in Milan during 1954. He
brought it home to the UK and took it to Mercian Cycles where this
frame was built with the special
toothed rear ends needed for the gear. Some time after
1958 Dave had the frame changed by having normal Campagnolo road rear
ends and gear
bosses fitted. This was the specification when I got it from
him earlier this year and
I had the paintwork restored as the original.

The
1954 Vigorelli
frame is 25" from bottom-bracket to top of top tube; the top
tube is 24" centre-to-centre and the chainstays 17¾".
It has twin braze-on Campag gear bosses with cable
guides at B B plus cable stop on chainstay. Brake cable stops
under top tube.

Side of head lugs and
fork crown

Front of head lugs and
head badge

Seat lug and top of seat
stay

I recently acquired a second Mercian frame in rather sorry condition.
This time a welded version, frame number 4953 (1949).
It has now been restored and is listed in Readers' Bikes

Early
head
badge on 1953 frame

Unusual down tube
transfer
cascading

Fork crown identical to
the 1954
model above

1976 Mercian Strada Speciale head lug with clover-leaf cutaway

Seat lug on the same machine
Frame number is 94376 5

Bottom bracket on the Strada Speciale with clover-leaf cutout for
lightness or drainage?

John
Crump's 1950 Mercian
with long tangs added to the Nervex Professional lugs on
the underside of top tube and down tube.
He tells us the Mercian catalogue he owns
does mention Super
Bi-laminated on all lugs with 3" extensions under all tubes